Unemployment and employment both rose
In September 2026, Australia’s unemployment rate was 4.7%, seasonally adjusted, against 4.4% a year earlier. The last month with a higher rate was October 2021, at 5.2%.
The number of unemployed people rose by 55,200 over the year, or 8.2%, to 732,000. Over the same year, the number of employed people rose by 168,300, or 1.2%, to 14,782,700.
Both can rise at once because the labour force grew by 223,500, to 15,514,700. The labour force is everyone employed plus everyone unemployed; the participation rate, the share of people aged 15 and over in it, was 66.8%, against 66.9%.
| Measure | Sep 2025 | Sep 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employed people | 14,614,300 | 14,782,700 | +168,300 |
| Unemployed people | 676,800 | 732,000 | +55,200 |
| Labour force | 15,291,200 | 15,514,700 | +223,500 |
| Unemployment rate | 4.4% | 4.7% | +0.3 |
| Participation rate | 66.9% | 66.8% | -0.2 |
What the survey counts
The unemployed are people with no paid work who are looking for it and able to start. The Australian Bureau of Statistics counts them in a monthly sample survey of households, not from benefit claims.
The employed include anyone who did at least one hour of paid work in the survey week. The survey counts people, not jobs, so a person with two jobs is counted once.
The unemployment rate is a share of the labour force, not of the population. 732,000 unemployed people in a labour force of 15,514,700 is 4.7%.
- UNEMPLOYED: people aged 15 and over with no paid work in the survey week who had actively looked for work and could have started, or were about to start a job. They are counted in a survey of households, not from benefit claims.
- EMPLOYED: people who did at least one hour of paid work in the survey week, or had a job they were away from. The survey counts people, not jobs, and the number rose over the year.
- SEASONALLY ADJUSTED AND TREND: two estimates from the same survey. Seasonal adjustment removes the usual calendar pattern; the trend also smooths the survey’s month-to-month movement, and the ABS recommends it for the underlying direction.
So a rate of 4.7% does not say that Australia lost jobs: employment grew by 168,300 over the year. It says the labour force grew by 223,500, and 55,200 of that growth was people without work and looking for it.
One survey, two counts and two ways of reading it, and a reading that forgets any of them says what the source does not.
One month, and the year
In September alone, employment fell by 39,300 and the rate rose by 0.1 point. The ABS asks readers to treat month-to-month changes with caution: a sample survey moves from month to month even when the labour market does not.
The trend, which smooths that movement, shows the same direction over the year: the rate rose from 4.3% to 4.6%. In trend terms the number of unemployed people rose by 66,000 and the number employed by 210,800.
Of the Septembers from 2019 to 2026, the rate was lowest in 2022 and 2023, at 3.6%. It was 6.9% in September 2020, during the pandemic, and 4.7% in September 2021, the same as in 2026.
| September | Unemployment rate | Unemployed | Employed | Participation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 5.2% | 711,800 | 12,903,900 | 66.0% |
| 2020 | 6.9% | 931,200 | 12,521,000 | 64.6% |
| 2021 | 4.7% | 632,900 | 12,828,800 | 64.4% |
| 2022 | 3.6% | 510,300 | 13,675,700 | 66.5% |
| 2023 | 3.6% | 519,500 | 14,097,900 | 66.5% |
| 2024 | 4.0% | 603,000 | 14,451,100 | 67.1% |
| 2025 | 4.4% | 676,800 | 14,614,300 | 66.9% |
| 2026 | 4.7% | 732,000 | 14,782,700 | 66.8% |
What these figures do not say
They do not say why. Nothing here measures interest rates, migration, population growth or any industry, and no policy is assessed.
They do not say that jobs were lost: employment rose over the year. They say nothing about pay, about any state or territory, or about how long anyone has been looking for work.
They compare Australia only with itself, and none of this is a forecast.
